COVID-19 Is Not Tired of YOU!
Many people are tired of wearing masks, washing hands, and social distancing. This phenomenon even has a name, “pandemic fatigue”. Unfortunately, this deadly virus is not weary of plaguing us. Granted we cannot eliminate the virus, but we have not even done our part to knock this virus down. So, the USA has seen at least 221,000 deaths and 8.3 million infections. We are now averaging 56,000 new COVID-19 cases per day over the last week. Hospitalizations are at record highs in sixteen states. A field hospital has been opened in Wisconsin to handle the overflow of patients requiring Covid-19 patient overflow. The infection rate (positive infection of those tested) exceeds 5% in 29 states, 10% in sixteen of those and 20% in eight of those states. Experts surmise that the reopening of schools and colleges has also contributed to this surge, although the predominant factor is our failure to follow proper public health measures. A huge problem is that the cooler weather, which drives us indoors, and the peak of the flu season are not here yet. These two conditions will fuel the upcoming devastation which is projected to result in the worse 6-12 weeks of this pandemic. Additionally, in the news is that two of the four vaccine trials and one of the antibody trials are on hold. It is not unusual for vaccine trials to be placed on hold, so this may not mean a significant delay in availability. There are also emerging reports of several people becoming reinfected with a different strain of the virus.
With these terrifying numbers and projections as a backdrop, this presidential administration is driving not only the pandemic fatigue message but also promoting an extremely dangerous and deadly concept referred to by many as “herd immunity”. The President outwardly states that he and people are “tired of Covid-19”. Thus, he holds mostly maskless political rallies and events around the country including the known “superspreader event” (where he possibly became infected) at the White House several weeks ago. These large gatherings are not only in violation of local regulations but are clearly averse to the tried and true public health measures of mask wearing and social distancing. Proper public health policy dictates a dogged adherence to proven pandemic fighting methods and not surrendering to a path of less resistance. Doctor Scott Atlas is a neuro-radiologist and relatively newly added member to the president’s Covid-19 Task Force. He is the advocate of policies akin to herd immunity and he minimizes the usefulness of mask wearing and surveillance testing. He is at odds with most experts who have had much more extensive experience with infectious diseases combat that he. By way of explanation, herd immunity is concept by which a large enough percentage of individuals in a population (herd) have developed resistance to a disease (immunity) so that spread is not possible to those who have no resistance. This herd immunity is best achieved by vaccination and not by being exposed to the actual disease, since the latter means the individual could likely be ill. Even in the case of COVID-19, having the infection could mean short- and long-term consequences and even death. Practically speaking, allowing the disease to “just rip” would mean that millions of Americans would die before we reached the 70% exposure necessary to reach herd immunity. Safe and effective vaccinations is a much better approach.
We must “not be weary” with WEAR, WASH, and WATCH! These are the sacrifices that we must continue to make if we are going to fight this virus while we await a safe and effective vaccine. Please get your seasonal influenza vaccine. It is also time to begin to think about holiday gatherings. Family gatherings are notorious for driving the spread of this virus particularly when they are indoors. It is hard to say but we need to make the choice between Thanksgiving celebrations in November and having our healthy relatives around next year. Remember you may be asymptomatic so do not take this virus home to your parents and grandparents.
VOTE! The person who is President has a huge influence on your health and very existence.
